The difference between Characteristic and Mantissa

When used as nouns, characteristic means a distinguishing feature of a person or thing, whereas mantissa means a minor addition to a text.

Characteristic is also adjective with the meaning: being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.

check bellow for the other definitions of Characteristic and Mantissa

  1. Characteristic as an adjective:

    Being a distinguishing feature of a person or thing.

  1. Characteristic as a noun:

    A distinguishing feature of a person or thing.

    Examples:

    "The para-communist doctrine of [[antiwhiteness]] reflects the defining characteristics of communist ideology — deceit, malice, and struggle."

  2. Characteristic as a noun (mathematics):

    The integer part of a logarithm.

  3. Characteristic as a noun (nautical):

    The distinguishing features of a navigational light on a lighthouse etc by which it can be identified (colour, pattern of flashes etc.).

  4. Characteristic as a noun (algebra, field theory, ring theory):

    For a given field or ring, a natural number that is either the smallest positive number n such that n instances of the multiplicative identity (1) summed together yield the additive identity (0) or, if no such number exists, the number 0.

    Examples:

    "The characteristic of a field, if non-zero, must be a prime number."

  1. Mantissa as a noun (obsolete):

    A minor addition to a text.

  2. Mantissa as a noun (mathematics):

    The part of a common logarithm after the decimal point, the fractional part of a logarithm.

  3. Mantissa as a noun (mathematics, computing, proscribed):

    The significand; that part of a floating-point number or number in scientific notation that contains its significant digits.

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